“I have known [Steve] for 26 years, probably longer than anyone else in this room, unless a member of his family is here,” Colbert said while making a toast at Sony’s Madison Avenue offices after the movie screened for VIPs.

Steve Carell in “Foxcatcher.”Everett Collection

Colbert added he’s known Carell since “The Second City [improv group], then at the long and lost ‘Dana Carvey Show’ and, of course, then at ‘The Daily Show,’ where we shared an office. I know that everyone is surprised by the performance that Steve is putting in this movie, but I’m not. I always knew that there was so much that Steve hadn’t shown people.”

Colbert also joked when he got a round of applause, “That’s the only reason I came here, thank you.”